New on Science Exchange: ActiveMotif, Optopatch, & CV Tox for World Heart Day

We observe World Heart Day at Science Exchange by highlighting a novel technology for assessing cardiac safety, from the Efimov Lab at George Washington University. Other newcomers on our platform that we present to you are ActiveMotif, Oncodesign, QurAlis, and Worldwide Clinical Trials.

It’s the 20th anniversary of the discovery of chromatin — and researchers can treat their favorite chromatin samples to ActiveMotif’s RIME service (Rapid immunoprecipitation mass spectrometry of endogenous

proteins). It is an ideal method for identifying transcriptional cofactors and other associated proteins within multi-protein complexes, and is often performed in parallel with ChIP-seq.

A leading provider of kits and services for studying gene regulation (both genetic and epigenetic), ActiveMotif is no stranger to chromatin. RIME is just one of a comprehensive menu of gene regulation services that ActiveMotif offers through Science Exchange — visit the storefront to browse their capabilities.

Founded in May 2017 by Clifford Woolf, Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, Kevin Eggan, Professor of Regenerative Biology at Harvard, Kasper Roet, Harvard Research Fellow, and Q-State Biosciences, QurAlis focuses the power of Q-State’s powerful, 100% optical electrophysiology platform on novel, stem cell-derived, disease-in-dish models of ALS.

It’s a Dead Sea microorganism that is the basis of the enabling Q-State technology. QuasAr proteins, derived from this microbe, respond to action potentials and synaptic signals by emitting near-infrared fluorescence. These Optopatch assays thus deliver higher throughput and information content than traditional patch clamp assays, and they also provide better resolution and lower phototoxicity than other optical screening tools.

In the high-stakes service category of clinical trials, Worldwide stands out. In fact, Worldwide’s Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Michael F. Murphy, M.D., Ph.D., was recently named one of the PharmaVOICE 100 Most Inspiring People of 2017 — for the impact of Dr. Murphy’s dedication to innovation.

Continuously working to improve trial design and patient outcomes, Worldwide now offers early phase services on the Science Exchange network. Click on the Worldwide storefront to access this major global CRO without needing a separate contract.

An apt addition to the Science Exchange platform, in time for World Heart Day (September 29!), is the Efimov Laboratory at George Washington University.

Known around the world as a leader in cardiovascular science and biomedical engineering, Dr. Igor Efimov and his team developed a method for optically mapping organotypic cultures of donor human heart slices, enabling users to test the cardiac safety and efficacy of therapeutic candidates.

The culture method preserves heart tissue architecture and extracellular matrix — aspects of heart health that cannot be revealed by iPSC-derived cardiac cells or other traditional assays for cardiovascular toxicology. Visit the lab’s storefront for a list of their recent exciting publications — this is clearly a team to watch.

True thought leaders in the field of preclinical drug discovery and development, Oncodesign made the news last year when it partnered with Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop novel macrocyclic candidates and test them using their proprietary xenograft models and imaging technology.

Now, Oncodesign’s services are easily accessible to Science Exchange requesters. We get extremely excited thinking that a requester on our platform with a promising therapeutic candidate may now use Oncodesign’s Predict®, Chi-mice®, Pharmimage® and other platforms to characterize their candidate, speeding it along the path to potential cancer patients. Start a conversation with this leading CRO by submitting your Scope of Work here.

Chandreyee Das

Senior Content Manager

Chandreyee Das, Ph.D. (Chemical Biology, UCSF) is a Senior Content Manager at Science Exchange with 15 years of research experience and 12 years of life science content marketing experience. Chandreyee was a Fulbright Scholar and won fellowships from the U.S. NSF and NIH. Following postdoctoral research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she worked at MilliporeSigma, delivering scientific content to life science tools customers. She has published in both peer-reviewed and industry news outlets.